Everybody’s Fine hits theaters this weekend, a remake of a 1990 Italian film about a widower reconnecting with his kids (at Christmas time, of course), and it has most of us thinking: Yea … so what good movies has Robert De Niro done lately? That’s a head-scratcher. Past his prime, De Niro has yet to [...]

A little more than a month ago I posted a musing on how zombies have managed to become their own genre in film. Now it’s time to focus on the monster genre that has reigned supreme for centuries: vampires. The Twilight Saga: New Moon comes out tomorrow or in most people’s case, at midnight tonight. [...]

Spike Jonze’s film adaptation of one of the all-time greatest children’s books Where the Wild Things Are comes out Friday and it makes me wonder, what took ‘em so long? If feature-length films could be made of Dr. Seuss legends How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat and Horton Hears a Who!, [...]

I like Vince Vaughn. He’s a Chicago man (Cubs fan) and there’s no one I’d rather listen to complain. Few people are actually funny when they rant or complain, and Vince Vaughn is one of them. Then again, Vince is one of those comedians who have gotten stale lately. It started with Fred Claus back [...]

And at last, time for the final category of the summer and perhaps the season’s most beloved genre: best action films. 2009 was a rarity in this decade because it wasn’t dominated by superhero movies. Only one came out and it barely made the list, whereas last year there were three and I probably would [...]

I’m all about comedies at the movies, but I’m pretty tough when it comes to reviewing humor. I’m usually either pretty generous in reviewing a comedy that manages to make me hysterical a good number of times and stingy if I’m not won over by the characters.  All in all, 2009 was a pretty solid [...]

2009 was a pretty good summer in the way of family/kids entertainment. With kids out of school and day camps not for everyone in this economy, even the films not on this top five list cough“G-Force”cough raked in serious money. In fact, only one film on this list didn’t cream the box office (for understandable [...]

Summer is the time for the action blockbusters and the year’s best comedies, which despite our society’s many gender reforms, means more roles for men, so putting together the top five acting performances by a male actor was a tougher endeavor than for the ladies.  To sort things out, I chose quality dramatic acting over [...]

The summer’s best female roles tended to come from the best actresses. Sad as it is, most summer films don’t create great roles for women, so the women that really shine in this season tend to be the best in the business. Though the majority of my top five are younger actresses, the top two [...]

A lot of future stars are born in the summer. Although the Oscar-caliber actors usually emerge from the winter season, the summer months most often judge an actor’s true commercial success. Getting a big role in a possible blockbuster, such as Megan Fox in 2007’s “Transformers,” can make you the next biggest hit on search [...]

Unfortunately, there are always films that make a killing at the box office and don’t deserve it, sucking us in with high expectations and visual effects, preying on how easily we are persuaded by advertising and ultimately insulting our intelligence. Truth is, a lot of those films come out in the summer, and 2009 had [...]

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” came out today and while I have no plans to run to and see it, especially with the buzzworthy and awesome-looking sci-fi flick “District 9” also opening, it doesn’t mean I’m any less hopelessly in love with star Rachel McAdams.  In other words, if you invite me, I will go see [...]

You can pooh all over the fact that I claim to know what I’m talking about when it comes to film, but you cannot smear that on my reputation as a superhero movie buff. I’m no Brainiac  (boy, I hope Superman fans are reading this) and I haven’t seen everything, but if there’s a genre [...]